Mt. Lebanon pool renovations on schedule

By Eric Seiverling

For The Almanac

writer@thealmanac.net

With warmer weather around the corner, South Hills residents will soon be visiting area pools and water parks for relief from the summer sun. But in 2014, Mt. Lebanon residents won’t have to travel far to beat the heat in style.

Mark Edelmann of EPM Architecture and Wayne Wade of Wade Associates appeared at the May 14 Mt. Lebanon Commissioners meeting to update commissioners and the public on renovations scheduled to take place at the Mt. Lebanon pool.

According to Edelmann and Wade, designs to the pool are on schedule and proceeding as planned, and the new-and-improved facility should be open for the 2014 summer season.

“We’ve received a lot of public comments and emails about what changes should be made to the pool,” Edelmann said. “They’re all good ideas.”

Edelmann and Wade, along with Mt. Lebanon Recreation Director David Donnellan and Mt. Lebanon Engineer Dan Deiseroth, highlighted the plan to separate a pedestrian walkway from a service vehicle driveway.

“Service vehicles mixing with pedestrians is not a good idea,” Deiseroth said. “We want to create a purely pedestrian access.”

Donellan said the vehicle driveway will allow the concession stand to accept deliveries, as well as allow instructors and residents to drive supplies and coolers closer to the pool’s entrance without posing a threat to those walking into the facility.

“We don’t know in advance when those deliveries will occur, so this will help with that,” Donnellan said.

Other plans to renovate the facility include expanding the concrete walkway and deck area surrounding the pool, building an overlook for the pool’s surrounding recreational fields, making the bathhouse more accessible for people with disabilities, upgrading the plumbing and filtering systems, adding canopies and retractable umbrellas for shade, installing a climbing wall and a spray pool, and building a water slide. The pool will also become a gradual depth pool, where guests can walk into zero feet of water and see the water gradually rise as they walk into the pool. Nine lanes for competitive swimming will remain in place.

The entrance to the pool will be turned into an atrium with skylights and will have a new walkway that doesn’t force guests to pass through the changing areas.

Employees of the pool will also see improvements to their work spaces. Edelmann and Wade plan to add a first aid room for life guards, a separate office for the Mt. Lebanon Aqua Club, a new mechanical office, new equipment in the filtration room and two new rooms for storage.

Edelmann said the project is within the $3.3 million budget, and construction is expected to start the day the pool closes in 2013 and will be completed by opening day in 2014.